Language:
German
Year of publication:
1997
Titel der Quelle:
Archiv für Sozialgeschichte
Angaben zur Quelle:
37 (1997) 460-481
Keywords:
Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah.
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
Abstract:
Summarizes criticism of Goldhagen's book "Hitler's Willing Executioners" by German historians and journalists. Points out that Goldhagen's critics are not "revisionists", but scholars who have often devoted their lives to research on the Holocaust and who basically agree with Goldhagen on the fact of German guilt (though their view is more complex and differentiated than his). While Goldhagen's thesis is too simplistic, his merit is that he has redirected attention from the Nazi bureaucrats to the direct perpetrators and to their victims; that he has raised questions that call for further research; and that, unlike the German historians with their carefully maintained scholarly distance and objectivity, he has succeeded in reaching and moving a broad public. The German public's lively interest in the debate is a sign of the health of democracy in Germany.
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